Currently, electronic devices compliant to the universal plug and play (UPnP, registered trademark) audio/video (AV) standard and compliant to the digital living network alliance (DLNA) guideline have come into common use. In the UPnP AV standard, a protocol designed for playing AV content is set as the higher layer of UPnP protocols that enable participation in a network just by connecting electronic devices to the network. The DLNA guideline represents the industry standard for providing compatibility among electronic devices and for enabling configuration of a network comprising domestic electronic devices. The DLNA guideline implements the UPnP protocols as the means of communication among the electronic devices.
In the UPnP standard, devices as well as control points for controlling the devices are defined. In the UPnP AV standard, media servers (UPnP AV media servers) that are responsible for content accumulation and media renderers (UPnP AV Media Renderers) responsible for playing content are defined as devices. Moreover, control points (UPnP AV control points) find devices on a network, and control those devices. In the UPnP AV standard, from media servers selected at a control point, the media renderers selected at that control point obtain contents via the network, and perform control to play the contents.
Conventionally, under the DLNA guideline implementing the UPnP standard, if there exist a digital media server (DMS) and a digital media renderer (DMR) in the same device, network transfer process of when content is transmitted and received through the network is performed, as similar to the case when the DMS and the DMR are provided separately. Here, the DMS is a content sender equivalent to the media server, and holds contents specified by a control terminal (digital media controller (DMC)) which is equivalent to the control point. Further, the DMR is a content receiver equivalent to the media renderer.
However, as described above, if the DMS and the DMR are installed in the same device and if the transfer of contents therebetween is performed via the network transfer process; then the resources of that device are unnecessarily consumed. Moreover, in a content transmitting and receiving device comprising the DMS as well as the DMR, depending on the specifications or depending on the resource usage status of the content sending and receiving apparatus, the contents may not be able to be transferred.